Intense heat waves, massive floods caused by heavy rains, extreme droughts and storms with winds exceeding all historical records are becoming more common in news reports every day.
Humanity has begun to witness first-hand the symptoms of irreversible climate change. Why? Because, according to the World Bank, the intensive consumption of materials depletes natural resources and causes negative environmental impacts at every stage of a product’s life cycle, including production, use and end-of-life. As a result, global human-generated waste is expected to rise to 3.4 billion tons by 2050.
How can we mitigate the damage we are doing to our only home? Everything indicates that the answer to this vital question lies in technology, especially in the disruptive power of quantum computing.
Given the fundamental characteristics of quantum computers, such as quantum superposition and entanglement, these computers could solve extremely complex tasks, such as helping to improve climate modeling, and thus provide more accurate predictions of the impact of climate change, as well as better inform mitigation and adaptation strategies to the new environmental scenario.
Quantum computing is also emerging as an ideal technology for optimizing food production methods, reducing waste and improving performance, especially in precision agriculture.
On the other hand, quantum computing can help to better understand the molecular interactions of pollutants with different substances, which would allow the design of filters or treatment processes that are much more efficient than those that currently exist in terms of water purification.
In designing new materials, the complexity of this makes quantum computing a big answer. This highly disruptive new technology could help discover and design new sustainable materials, more efficient batteries and better solar panels. And something even more important: quantum technology could help find efficient methods to capture and sequester carbon from the atmosphere, thereby mitigating the greenhouse effect caused by CO₂.
In general, the vast majority of sustainability-related problems are fundamentally optimization problems.. For example, optimization of air, sea or land transport routes to reduce fuel consumption, optimization of irrigation in agriculture to conserve water, optimization of electricity consumption, among others. In all these cases, quantum computers could solve these types of optimization problems much more efficiently than the best current classical computers.
Everything exposed so far shows the great disruptive power that quantum computing has in favor of sustainability. It is this new technology that opens the door of hope towards a promising future in which humanity will not be synonymous with planetary destruction. (OR)
Source: Eluniverso
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
